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Evacuation along St. Marys River stands - as do the waters

The deluge from Tropical Storm Debby has tensions rising.

Saying he was “tired, wore out and aggravated,” Quentin McArthur packed up some clothes and used his tractor to evacuate his flooded riverfront property after another sleepless night convinced him to abandon his plan to wait it out at home.

Water from the swollen St. Marys River stood at several feet inside this Spring Hill Court home off Georgia 40. The flooding has been slow to recede in many areas.

Matthew Lee sloshes with his family dog, Rambo, through their flooded yard on Spring Hill Court. Several homes on their cul-de-sac are flooded and the water was expected to rise again.

Spanish Creek looked more like a lake at the Georgia 121 bridge south of Folkston. Flood waters from the St. Marys River have engorged the creek, and waters may still be on the rise.

KINGSLAND - After watching the St. Marys River continue to rise into his riverside property, Quentin McArthur finally gave up Monday. He towed his boat to a safe place in a flooded roadside ditch, placed some clothes on the hood of his tractor and drove out.

"I'm tired, wore out and aggravated," he said.

As the flood waters from Tropical Storm Debby's rains decline upstream in Charlton and Baker counties, it's clear the flood is not through with Camden and Nassau, officials said.

The water was across Georgia 40 near Folkston Monday and still rising. The water was also less than a foot below the road's surface a few miles to the east in Camden County where it also threatened to overtop Georgia 110 on its southern end.

Eighteen to 20 houses have water in them, as far as Camden County Emergency Management Director Mark Crews can tell from flyovers and from the water.

Crews traveled Monday to Charlton County and looked at the slowly dropping water level at Trader's Hill upstream from Folkston and figured Camden was in for higher water.

"We're still a day or two behind Trader's Hill," he said. "We're still on the rise in Camden, but I don't expect it to get drastically higher."

The current state is surely enough for residents of Flea Hill, where McArthur lives in a riverside house, and for others at Spring Hill Court, where a couple of houses are flooded and others are threatened.

McArthur had gone through Tropical Storm Faye's flood in 2008 and figured last week he could ride out Tropical Storm Debby's water, too. But after another sleepless night in his house, he decided to leave.

"Everything I've got has washed across the road into the woods anyway," McArthur said.

Charlene Haddock said the water had crept eight feet closer to her house Monday in Spring Hill Court, so she decided to spend the night in a hotel.

"My nerves can't take this," Haddock said.

Two doors away, Sheila Harris and her son Nathan August returned from the store with groceries and a big bag of dog food. Her other son, Matthew Lee, waded from the house, which was still a few feet above the flood, to help carry the bags. Then her father, Frank Harris, waded out with his dachshund Red under an arm.

Their neighbor's house clearly has water several feet deep inside.

"Oh it's going to come higher," she said of the water. "As long as the air conditioning stays on, we'll stay."

They've already had to turn off their well pump, which is underwater, and Harris said she bought pre-cooked food.

Ricky and Connie Taylor have two houses two doors down from McArthur. Ricky Taylor said the water already is about a foot deep in the bottom floor of their two-story house, but that it's a partially finished garage that can be washed out.

The other, however, has heart pine floors that could be ruined by the flood.

"We got the good stuff out," Taylor said.

Most residents figured that the flood wouldn't get much higher than that of 1964 from Hurricane Dora that set the record for the St. Marys. Debby had already topped Dora's record by at least a foot upstream.

"It's up now to the level of Dora" at Flea Hill, Taylor said.

The thing that the Folkston native finds unnerving is that the St. Marys had backed up into Spanish Creek south of Folkston and turned it into a lake about a half mile wide. He said he drove Georgia 121 and saw that the water wasn't moving.

"That just spooks me" because he knows all that water has to get past his houses at Flea Hill, Taylor said.

At least Crews has a little less to worry about. Most of the residents of Flea Hill and adjacent John's Fish Camp — if not all — have evacuated. Most are staying with friends or relatives, but a few motels at Kingsland have offered reduced room rates to evacuees, he said.

The boat ramps at Browntown and U.S. 17 are closed and boaters are asked to stay away from the flooded areas.

The wakes from boats can sent even higher water into already flooded homes, officials said.

The St. Marys was at 18.9 feet at the Georgia 121 bridge north of Macclenny Monday morning, down from the new record high of 24.4 last week but still 6.9 feet above flood stage.

Dozens of homes were flooded last week along St. Marys Bluff Road in the Georgia Bend area in extreme southern Charlton County.